Tuesday, 2 June 2026

BANNED!

English FOOTBALL clubs were banned from all European competitions indefinitely by UEFA on June 2nd 1985.

This decision followed the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels, where 39 spectators (mostly Juventus fans) were killed during a riot before the European Cup Final...

The 1985 European Cup final pitted two of the most successful and "storied" clubs in Europe against each other: Juventus from Turin, Italy, and Liverpool, an English team that was the defending European champion. At 7 p.m., right before the start of the match, a group of Liverpool fans, drunk from a day spent at the bars in Brussels, charged after a group of Juventus fans. In the melee, a stadium wall collapsed, crushing some spectators. Others were trampled in the ensuing rush to flee the stadium. In all, 32 Juventus fans were killed, as well as seven bystanders. Hundreds of other people were injured. To avoid further rioting from the unruly crowd, the game went on as scheduled. Juventus won 1–0.

Timeline of the Ban: General Ban (1985–1990): All English football clubs were banned from European competitions for five years.

Liverpool’s Extended Ban (1985–1991): Liverpool received an additional year, keeping them out of Europe for six seasons in total.
Return: English clubs returned to European competition for the 1990–91 season.
The FA, as the governing body of the national sport, is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA and FIFA.
The current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.
This is a complex subject, and the FA's position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the 16 April means that The FA will be changing its policy. Transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England, and this policy will be implemented from 1 June 2025.
We understand that this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love, in the gender by which they identify and we are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game. Here's an historic video about this...6 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPaj7heCAms

Monday, 1 June 2026

ERIC, LAWRIE AND THE MACS (repeat!)

June 1st 2009 was the UK Premier of the Eric Cantona movie "Looking for Eric" shown at the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays, Manchester. Eric played himself and the most memorable line was "I am not a man-I am Cantona".

Two years earlier (2007), John Terry played an unusual role at the newly rebuilt Wembley, when he scored England's only goal against Brazil in front of nearly 89,000. It looked like a victory at one point but Diego equalised in "added" time. It was the first game to be played at the "new" stadium.

At the end of the 1971-2 season, when fans invaded the pitch after Grimsby Town won the Fourth Division Championship, their manager, Lawrie McMenemy, made a speech to the crowd in an attempt to restore order. As soon as Lawrie finished his speech a lad in the crowd, threw away his crutches and cried "It's alright Lawrie, I can walk now!". The lad strutted off, others gawped at the miracle and Lawrie enveloped a "God-like aura"!

Actually Lawrie knew the lad and knew the child had been on the mend previously. Lawrie moved to the south coast, from Grimsby in the Summer of 1973 and within 3 years guided the Second Division club, Southampton to winning the FA Cup (remember Bobby Stokes' goal v Man U?). The Saints were then promoted, were runners up in the 1979 League Cup, he signed Kevin Keegan from Hamburg in 1980 and then came runners up in the League behind a rampant Liverpool in 1983-4.

In 1985, Lawrie decided he had done his work at Southampton and he moved to his "north-east" and Sunderland. God Bless!!

He did not have the success that he hoped for, despite spending money on Eric Gates, George Burley and Ray Kennedy.

With the club, one point above the relegation zone, the local lads vandalised his gold Mercedes in March 1987 and he resigned. A month later, Sunderland lost their final league game to Barnsley 2-3 having been 2-0 up and missing a penalty. Needing a win, they then lost the relegation play-off to Gillingham and Sunderland dropped into the Third Division for the first time in history.

On June 1st 1958, Scotland played their first ever international match against Poland in Warsaw. So almost a perfect coincidence, but at least 8 of the 11 Poles had a "k" in their name and no Scot was called "Mc" or "Mac"!! The Macs won 2-1. A bloke with a "k" in his name scored the Poles' goal.

Sunday, 31 May 2026

CLOUGIE AND THEO

Football On This Day: 30th May 1979

Cloughie leads unfashionable Nottingham Forest to a European Cup Final victory over Malmo in Munich. "Cloughie v Malmo" refers to the legendary 1979 European Cup Final where Brian Clough managed Nottingham Forest to a 1-0 victory against the Swedish side Malmö FF in Munich. The only goal of the match was scored by Trevor Francis. This was an amazing achievement – one which Forest repeated the following year to become the first club ever to win the European Cup more often than their own domestic League title.

and on the same date in 1996, just before the European Championships started, the England squad flew home from a Hong Kong tour and the flight coincided with Paul (yes, you can guess can't you??) 29th BIRTHDAY... apparently. There was a celebration by the squad, in flight and needless to say the Cathay Pacific plane (and probably staff!) suffered £5,000 worth of damage. The chaps created a drunken party and there was no where to go!

and on 30th May 2006, aged 17 years and 75 days, Theo Walcott became the youngest senior England international in the 3-1 victory over Hungary in a friendly, at Old Trafford. Theo broke the longstanding Wayne Rooney's record, when he came on as a 65th-minute substitute, for Michael Owen, in a friendly match against Hungary at Old Trafford. Another debut was given to the robotic dance celebration of Peter Crouch after he had scored England’s third goal.

Theo Walcott (now 37 years old)....below....

made his senior international debut for England on May 30 2006, in a 3-1 friendly victory against Hungary at Old Trafford. At just 17 years and 75 days old, he broke Wayne Rooney’s record to become England's youngest-ever senior international player. He came on as a 65th-minute substitute for Michael Owen.

Theo's Senior career
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2005–2006	Southampton	21	(4)
2006–2018	Arsenal	270	(65)
2018–2021	Everton	77	(10)
2020–2021	→ Southampton (loan)	21	(3)
2021–2023	Southampton	29	(2)
Total		418	(84)

Friday, 29 May 2026

TIM PAYNE? WHO IS HE?

'Least-known' World Cup player goes viral and gains over 1m followers.....

Tim Payne of New Zealand passes during the FIFA World Cup 2026 OFC Qualifier Semi Final match between New Zealand All Whites and Fiji

New Zealand defender Tim Payne unwittingly shot to social media fame thanks to one Argentine influencer's mission to promote the World Cup's "least-known" player.

Over a few days, the stunt increased Payne's Instagram follower count from fewer than 5,000 to 600,000 - more than the All Whites' record goalscorer Chris Wood and New Zealand Prime MinIster, Christopher Luxon combined.

Payne's followers has reached this week1.4m and rising..........

Valen Scarsini, known as 'elscarso' online, shared a video calling on his 697k TikTok and 458k Instagram followers to follow and make posts about the Wellington Phoenix player to boost his profile.

"I looked at all the teams that play the World Cup for the least-known player and, after analysing one by one, I found it," Scarsini said, in a video that has attracted over six million views across Instagram and TikTok.

"Tim Payne is a defender and has a very difficult task: help New Zealand win their first World Cup match. They have never won one. "What needs to be done to be the hero of the World Cup? Follow Tim Payne.........

"Explode his posts with likes and comments. We need to start naming Tim Payne everywhere. Make videos feeding the legend of Tim Payne. If you have the World Cup album, upload a photo with your sticker!!!!!!

A post on Payne's profile, which celebrated his 50th appearance for New Zealand in March, now has over 50k comments. Payne, aged 32, scored one and assisted four during the All Whites' World Cup qualifying campaign and was included in Darren Bazeley's 26-man squad for the nation's third ever finals. (do you know when else NZ has made ther Finals?)

The tournament's lowest-ranked side, New Zealand will begin their first campaign since 2010 against Iran before taking on Egypt and Belgium in their bid to progress from Group G. A follow-up video with Scarsini revealed that Payne had messaged him about the surprise attention his account was attracting.

"Was wondering why my socials were blowing up and found your post, man," wrote Payne, who signed for Blackburn Rovers as a teenager in 2012.

"Appreciate the love! Gracias, hermano."

Payne has now posted a video message himself from New Zealand's pre-World Cup training camp in Florida. Speaking initially in Spanish, Payne said: "Please excuse my Spanish, I'm still practising on Duolingo," before continuing in English.

"Just want to say a massive thank you first to you, Valen, it's been a pretty crazy 48 hours to say the least. I just wanted to also express that I'm very grateful to represent my country at this World Cup, and I appreciate all the love from all around the world. Muchas gracias."

Scarsini pulled off a similar feat last year, when the Instagram follower count of second-tier Swiss side FC Balzers - the football club with "the smallest fan base", by his estimation - far exceeded that of top-tier champions FC Basel after he published a video calling his followers to action.